Topics

• How do science and technology relate in the emergence of modern science? (Be sure to address at least three of the following: printing press/paper, navigation, cartography, distillation, lensmaking [hint hint!], mining, Boyle's air-pump, postal system, Royal Society, architecture, clocks and geared machinery). Due May 13.
• [teachers only] Read "Scientific Myth-Conceptions" and comment, comparing our case studies with stories of scientists in educational curriculum familiar to you. Due May 6.
• Profile how elements of culture helped shape scientific ideas and methods from Gilbert to Newton. Due May 6.
• Assess the role of religion in the emergence of modern science, using all our cases as examples: Gilbert, Harvey, Galileo and his peers, Boyle and Newton, and the Reformation. Due May 6.
• Boyle v. Indian metallurgists. Map as many factors as possible--direct and indirect--significant to Boyle's discovery (ideas, methods, incl. technol., institutions, culture). Compare them with the potential of wootz makers to make the same discovery and what we may (or may not) thus conclude about "modern" science. DUE April 25
• Boyle v. Gilbert: In what ways are Boyle's and Gilbert's discoveries similar, in what ways different? How do both seem to reflect elements in the emergence of modern science? DUE April 25
• Contrast the conventional image of Galileo's trial with the history, as portrayed in our retrial. Elements to profile include: balance of evidence and alternative hypotheses, nature of evaluating evidence and hypotheses, politics of patronage, the Church's support of natural investigations and the Reformation (or, as stated in the course aims: ideas, methods, institutions and culture).
  OR Discuss how these elements make a verdict problematic and how you resolved them in your own decision. DUE April 18.
• Using the cases of Gilbert and Harvey, discuss how elements of "modern" scientific investigation could be deemed compatible with perspectives and conclusions we now consider "unscientific." What does this reveal about the emergence of modern science? DUE April 15.
• Compare and contrast the treatment of the heart, lungs and blood by Galen and William Harvey as they might contribute to our understanding of how scientific knowledge and investigation develops. DUE April 15.
• Compare and contrast (=discuss significant similarities and differences in) the treatment of magnetism and the compass by William Gilbert and the early Chinese as they might contribute to our understanding of how scientific knowledge and investigation develops. DUE April 15.

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• How do science and technology (tech-knowledgy?) relate in early science? (Consider, perhaps, examples from mapping, navigation, metals, agriculture and medicine.)
• Considering the origin of the compass, the Big Horn medicine wheel and Galen's treatise, how should we view the relationship of science and religion in the context of early science?
• Combine the two topics above: Discuss the Big Horn medicine wheel as a map, how it represents (what knowledge or research it reflects), its cultural context, and how we come to know this historically.
• Discuss the cultural context of science, as evidenced in our cases and echoed in various maps.
• Reflect on the maps from class and in Maps are Territories and summarize a response to the questions in Exh. 6 along with: How does a map a represent? What makes a map faithful or "realistic"? What does this imply for interpreting science historically?